Bernie Sanders' New York team slips up

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders were stung by an editorial board meeting with the Daily News that proved damaging to his campaign, but the primary local organization advising him on New York is not saying why it failed to prevent the slip-up.

The Working Families Party, which is led by veterans of New York politics, is helping Sanders navigate the state's tricky political waters. But either the party did not warn him of the risks of having Sanders sit down with the editorial board, or its warnings were ignored by the Sanders campaign.

"Gonna pass on this one," emailed the Working Families Party's New York state director, Bill Lipton, in response to an inquiry from Crain's. "Hope you understand."

The Daily News editorial board has been known to ask questions that can make candidates look clueless, print verbatim excerpts of their answers, then highlight the responses in scathing articles and commentaries. The paper has also been trying to counteract a precipitous decline in circulation with aggressive, opinionated front-page headlines. The combination of factors makes editorial board meetings with the News a risky proposition for candidates, with arguably limited upside: An endorsement from the newspaper (or any newspaper) doesn't move the needle the way it did years ago.

Moreover, its publisher, Mort Zuckerman, is a billionaire who leans Republican. Sanders has been railing about incessantly about billionaires and Republicans throughout his campaign. An even bigger factor is that Zuckerman, who contemplated running for U.S. Senate as a Republican, is also very pro-Israel, whereas Sanders has a more balanced view of that nation's conflict with the Palestinians, including his belief that some of Israel's responses to Palestinian actions have been disproportionate. The senator's position is seen as a betrayal of Israel by its hard-line supporters, including the National Review and the Daily News, which termed it "scary" in a blistering, breathless editorial. Given his position on Israel, Sanders' chances for a Daily News endorsement were minimal, if he had any chance at all.

The Sanders campaign's decision to meet with the paper's board suggests that his inner circle does not know much about New York City and that members of the Sanders team who do, namely leaders of the Working Families Party, were not consulted or just made the wrong call. Perhaps they assumed that the Daily News' harsh treatment of Donald Trump in recent months was a sign that it would be favorable to Sanders. So, Sanders walked in unprepared for an ambush, even falling for the gotcha question, "How do you get on the subway today?" (Sanders answered, "You get a token and you get in.")

Hillary Clinton also met with the Daily News editorial board, talking a lot but saying very little, according to columnist Linda Stasi. Nonetheless, the paper's coverage of the meeting was fairly tame.

Crain’s New York Business is the trusted voice of the New York business community—connecting businesses across the five boroughs by providing analysis and opinion on how to navigate New York’s complex business and political landscape.